Starting short with an Anytime Day Return

[Pat Figg]

I wasn't sure what to call this post as my actual query is probably too long for a subject title.

Last Friday (18th August) I wanted to go to Abergavenny at a ridiculously early hour. My home station is Aberdare and this has no trains until 0551. I wanted to be on the 0435 train from Cardiff Central (heading for Manchester) so I travelled down to Cardiff the previous evening, with a ticket valid for that day (17th) and sampled the delights of some late night hostelries until finally getting kicked out at about 2.45am.

When it came to buying my ticket for the 18th, once the station opened at about 4am, I chose the starting location as Aberdare as I was going back there in the night and an Aberdare to Abergavenny Anytime Day Return turned out to be about a pound more expensive than the Cardiff to Abergavenny equivalent. This meant I didn't have to pay over a fiver for a single from Cardiff to Aberdare later that day.

My first question: Am I allowed to do this? I was planning to use a ticket dated 18th August but technically that whole journey (Aberdare to Abergavenny) was impossible to do on that particular train as it was leaving Cardiff before any connecting trains from Aberdare had even started running. I'm pretty sure you're allowed to start short with an Anytime ticket but does that apply in these circumstances?

To further complicate things the 0435 was then cancelled and I ended up catching the next available train to Abergavenny which was a Holyhead service which was also running late. The guard on that train made no comment when I showed him my ticket. I was half expecting him to query it as I couldn't have possibly come by train from Aberdare at that time of day.

I now want to put in a Delay Repay claim. So my next question: Are they likely to query this?

 

[jfollows]

Yes, your ticket purchase and usage was completely valid. No issue with being hypothetically unable to get to Cardiff in time. Your choice not to use part of the ticket.
Delay Repay is a lottery, it seems, at least from reports here. Who knows what will happen!

 

[Pat Figg]

Thanks for the reply. I thought it was probably valid but I find some of the rules around ticketing to be quite complicated and I couldn't find anything to actually confirm it.

I'll put in the Delay Repay claim and let you know if it's successful or not!

 

[jfollows]

National Rail Conditions of Travel (https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e...572570/National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel.pdf) 16.2 for future reference:

Generally, you may start, or break and resume, a journey (in either direction in the case of a return Ticket) at any intermediate station, as long as the Ticket you hold is valid for the trains you want to use. However, this may not be the case with some through services that take an indirect route. You may also end your journey (in either direction in the case of a return Ticket) before the destination shown on the Ticket.

There's also this forum's ticketing guide at https://www.railforums.co.uk/forums/railuk-fares-ticketing-guide.153/ 1.5.2.2 (you may have to page down manually to see this, the links at the top don't work for me)

 

[Pat Figg]

Thanks for that. I did take a look at the ticketing guides yesterday. I think it was the fact that part of my journey was basically impossible at the time that confused me. I couldn't see anything that specifically referred to those circumstances although, following the logic of the passage above, it's obviously valid. I thought I might be accused of 'playing the system', which, in a way, I was I suppose.

My Delay Repay claim was approved. The email approving it arrived one minute after the email saying they'd received it, which came about 20 seconds after I'd submitted it. I wasn't expecting it to be that quick!